Data: Onboarding Boosts Online Engagement

Associations Now
September/October 2015

Research on online communities shows that a few simple practices for welcoming new participants can have significant positive effects on engagement.

In its "State of Community Management 2015" report, The Community Roundtable called a new-member onboarding program a "quick win" for organizations that host online communities. "This year's research shows that personal (versus automated) welcome emails, welcome calls, webinars, and video welcome tours all have significant correlation to higher engagement rates," the authors note.